Chamber and committees

The information is contained in the following table.

Central Heating Programme	(a) Budget	(b) Spend
2008-09	£51.57 million	£49.46 million
2007-08	£52.3 million	£48.9 million
2006-07	£58.19 million	£45.8 million

 

Yes. The EAP is helping thousands of households in Scotland to heat their homes more cheaply and efficiently. To end September:

Over 16,000 have taken up help,

Benefits checks have achieved nearly £454,000 in extra income,

400 households have moved on to a social tariff,

Over 2,100 insulation measures have been delivered and

4,683 central heating systems have been installed.

The independent Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum is responsible for monitoring the Energy Assistance Package (EAP) and considered the operation of the first six months of the package at their meeting on 27 October 2009. The forum considered that EAP is already delivering real benefits to people in fuel poverty “ increased income through benefit reviews, reduced prices through access to social tariffs, and more efficient heating through better insulation and new heating systems and recommended specific changes to further improve its operation and widen access to stage 4.

The Scottish Government announced on 4 November 2009 changes to operating procedures to speed up delivery of stage 4 and amendment to regulations to broaden the definition of an energy inefficient home.

The managing agent has confirmed it will contact those EAP applicants already surveyed whose homes achieved a SAP rating of between 39 and 54.

Additionally, the Energy Saving Trust will identify to the managing agent those applicants that it considers likely to have a SAP rating of 54 or below who were not referred to Stage 4. The managing agent will contact them to offer a SAP survey to establish whether theirs is an energy inefficient dwelling.

For all those applicants with an energy inefficient dwelling, the managing agent will make arrangements to check evidence of the householder''s eligibility once the amendment comes into effect. In order to limit waiting times, they will combine this eligibility check with the survey to decide the specification of measures.

The Energy Assistance Package (EAP) is a holistic approach to tackling fuel poverty that addresses both the home and the householder, and includes services to maximise income, reduce fuel bills and improve energy efficiency. Stage 4 of the package offers a menu of enhanced physical measures to groups most likely to be fuel poor, including central heating.

Our fuel poverty programme is helping thousands of households in Scotland to heat their homes more cheaply and efficiently. By 31 October:

Over 22,500 have taken up help under EAP,

Benefits checks have achieved nearly £687,000 in extra income,

Over 900 households have moved on to a social tariff due to referrals under EAP,

Over 2,700 insulation measures have been delivered,

Four thousand, seven hundred and one central heating systems have been installed.

The number of households taking up the Energy Assistance Package to end September, broken down by local authority area, is given in the following table. The table also shows the figure for the end of October.

Eligibility for Stage 4 is determined by the managing agent by means of a survey process. The number of households accepted by the managing agent as eligible for Stage 4 to end October, by local authority area, is given in the following table.

The second table shows installations that include central heating to 31 October, broken down by postcode area.

Local Authority	Households Taking Up EAP, At End September 2009	Households Taking Up EAP, At End October 2009	Households Accepted At EAP Stage 4 Survey, At End October 2009
Aberdeen City	314	529	52
Aberdeenshire	506	851	85
Angus	322	487	56
Argyll and Bute	282	453	57
Clackmannanshire	148	204	13
Dumfries and Galloway	641	857	180
Dundee City	362	523	84
East Ayrshire	470	588	48
East Dunbartonshire	365	550	40
East Lothian	284	383	30
East Renfrewshire	419	519	29
Edinburgh, City of	1,115	1,598	112
Eilean Siar	103	177	20
Falkirk	615	749	55
Fife	1,474	1,979	113
Glasgow City	1,359	1,776	163
Highland	819	1,320	105
Inverclyde	321	453	36
Midlothian	261	343	21
Moray	239	386	47
North Ayrshire	484	750	56
North Lanarkshire	998	1,270	113
Orkney Islands	94	124	16
Perth and Kinross	422	691	74
Renfrewshire	586	713	65
Scottish Borders	381	542	54
Shetland Islands	26	40	7
South Ayrshire	489	698	64
South Lanarkshire	1,096	1,467	135
Stirling	371	538	31
West Dunbartonshire	245	303	23
West Lothian	494	635	23
Local authority Not Identified	8	11
Total	16,113	22,507	2,007

 

Total Number of Installations That Include Central Heating, to 31 October 2009

Postcode Area	Total
AB	306
DD	237
DG	188
EH	610
FK	233
G	1,154
HS	18
IV	219
KA	411
KW	55
KY	273
ML	397
PA	391
PH	142
TD	60
ZE	7
All Scotland	4,701

 

The Energy Assistance Package is not simply a central heating replacement programme; it is a new programme offering a wider range of services to better tackle the three main causes of fuel poverty: low incomes; poor energy efficiency, and fuel costs. Help with physical measures is targeted at those most likely to be in fuel poverty including for the first time families with children under five or disabled children under 16. In the first year of any programme time is needed to raise awareness with newly eligible applicants. While we achieved a record 14,430 installations in the final year of the Central Heating Programme (CHP), by comparison in its first year, the CHP only installed 3,560 systems.

The seven contractors working in Dumfries and Galloway were all previously involved with the Central Heating Programme. The managing agent has advised that, wherever possible, Central Heating Programme contractors are used to carry out work under the Energy Assistance Package, with additional contractors being taken on to carry out work for the range of additional measures now available at Stage 4, for example air source heat pumps.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-28761 on 19 November 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The Energy Assistance Package is a demand-led programme supported by a budget worth over £60 million in 2009-10.

In itself, widening the eligibility criteria for Stage 4 of the Energy Assistance Package has no cost implications. The effect of including band E will be to nearly double the pool of households eligible for enhanced measures. Newly eligible households will have better energy efficiency ratings and therefore the cost of measures under Stage 4 may be less than those required for F and G band homes.

The residential properties known as Milagro and Cauldwellknowe Farm which are owned by the Scottish Ministers are tenanted.

The tenancy of Nether Howcleugh will expire on 31 March 2010.